Heading North for the Holidays? Brrrrr!

Well, I’m going to do it.

I live in Florida and its a normal sight for us Floridians to watch as RV owners from the rest of the US and especially people from Canada fill the southbound lanes of our major highways as they run away from their cold winters.

But me? I’ve decided to go north for Christmas.

And, I know that’s not uncommon for a lot of people. Lots of people head back to where “they used to live” for family visits over the Holidays.

The difference for me is that I’m going up to the Hills of Virginia, in my RV.

We made the decision a few weeks ago, which is kind of different from my penchant to plan and plan and plan on my RV trips to make sure everything is just right. I’m not a spontaneous person when it comes to traveling in my RV.

So anyway, we’ll be pulling out next week, heading north. We’ll be making a couple of overnight stops along the way because of my back problems and I’ll be driving as they say “with one eye on the weather reports” and one eye on the road.

The long range forecast doesn’t call for any precipitation on the trip up, so I feel pretty good about that part of the trip.

You see, I’ve been driving my RV in warm southern climates for years, and my comfort level is high unless I see freezing rain or snow on the roads.

That’s when I usually refuse to drive my motorhome, on such roads.

Anyway, we’re laughing at ourselves at the moment because we’re looking at our wardrobe and just realized we need to go shopping, today.

Shoes – For instance, we wear flip-flops pretty much everywhere here in Florida, unless we’re dressing up for a nice upscale dinner. So, we have flip-flops, walking shoes, and dress shoes in our closets. What we don’t have are decent casual shoes.

Pants – Again, living in Florida, we rarely put on long pants except for those same special dinner occasions. We do have jeans, it seems, but such things as nice slacks are not in our closets. We wear shorts, of course, and the slacks we do have are so thin, you wouldn’t wear them in any kind of cold weather.

Casual clothes – Here again, when you are just lying around in your RV, or at home in Florida, the wardrobe is once again, shorts and t-shirts. So, what are we going to do for our trip? Well, we figure we’ll need some sweat pants and shirts, a couple of heavier long-sleeve shirts and a heavy pair of slacks, as a minimum casual wardrobe.

Coats – Also, coats worn in Florida are a joke in the freezing temperatures of the north. We gave our away, years ago, and now, it looks like we need to pick up at least one “kind-of light” winter coat each.

BTW – We have camped in other of the motorhomes we owned over the years, and we do know that winter camping is not just a different environment, it’s also a different lifestyle.

And, we’re still going to do it, occasionally.

So, we’re going shopping today, for some basic winter survival clothes. You will probably recognize us if you are in Lynchburg Virginia over the holidays. We’ll be the tanned couple running between our car and whatever building we need to visit, shivering and complaining.

But that’s OK, we’re going to have good time anyway.

Oh, and my motorhome is in great condition, but we are going to monitor every potential problem and resolve it while camped in the cold weather, So, look for a few articles on our winter camper survival tricks.

by Don Bobbitt, December, 2015

Copyright, Don Bobbitt, December, 2015, All Rights reserved.

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Published by ramblingdon

As a Storyteller from the South, it was only natural that I turned to writing about the many fantastic things I have seen and experienced in my travels. I love to write about what I see; in people and at amazing places. I love Tiki Bars, Beautiful Sunsets, Interesting People and Great Conversations. I am a decent photographer, a terrible investor, and a good friend at those who get to know me.
I have a number of published books on Amazon!
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Oh MY! North Dakota must have been amazing and like you said, very cold. What kind of RV do you guys have, anyway? It must be set up for cold weather? We spent 3 weeks in the TT campground south of San Antonio a few years ago. It was a big, old roomy campground and we were only 30 or so miles from San Antonio itself. Good times then. DON

We have a 2015 Grand Design Momentum. 43′ fifth wheel toy hauler. Thankfully it is set up for cold weather, although I don’t think anything is set up for North Dakota cold! I doubt we would’ve lasted a winter there! We are just south of the DFW metro area at a really nice park called RV Ranch in Keene, TX. Second time we’ve stayed here, I highly recommend it if you’re ever in the area.